The best thing about Sister Michael is that she despises everybody. In a lesser show, she would be taken in by Jenny's toadying. But in Derry Girls she is repulsed by all children equally. This is her glory.
I propose that the old "Which Sex and the City girl are you?" question be replaced by "Which Derry Girl?" I'm Clare. I'm not a wee lesbian but everything else is on the nose.
I see myself as Michelle, but I'm an extremely earnest woman, impulsive, and always shouting about something. But I'm clueless. So I'm pretty much Erin with a dash of Orla.
"I knew it. When I woke up this morning I had a feeling something terrible was going to happen, and also that essentially, deep down, I'm quite an evil person." "It's a hangover, Clare. You'll be grand."
Am from Northern Ireland (don't live there any more tho), and the accuracy of DG is KILLING ME. Watching an episode is like sitting in a room with my family.
ME TOO. US-based these days and I have had so many great conversations about home since America discovered Derry Girls. Feeling a bit homesick tbh. I am also the same age as these girls basically so the show gave me big music nostalgia too.
Nerdery time: I think that everyone who runs D&D should watch Derry Girls for two reasons. 1. The constant escalation of nonsense is basically my platonic ideal of how a session should go. 2. One of the best examples I've ever seen of how different alignments can interact within a party, causing interesting disagreements and situations (specifically Michelle's chaotic neutral to Clare's lawful good)
Ooooh, what are the other alignments? I agree with Michelle's and Clare's for sure--I see Erin as lawful neutral, Orla also as chaotic neutral, and the wee English lad as lawful good. But I'm the fence on a couple of those takes.
Those sound right to me! The real question is Sister Michael... I'm tempted to say true neutral? She has to go through the motions of lawful good but also subverts them
Guess I should start it this weekend. Could use a distraction. I went to the doctor this week and hey, I'm depressed! Which I already knew, but at least the mental health referral process is rolling now.
Thanks. Also waiting to hear about possible next steps from a recruiter who seemed to like me, but the more time passes, the more I'm convinced that it's nothing and I'm going to be let down again.
My most important Derry Girls take is that it is DEEPLY unrealistic that Clare, my dearest wee lesbian, did not IMMEDIATELY have a crush on the hot English teacher from series two!!! She wore suits!!! she stood Like That™!!!! No lesbian would stand a chance!!!!!
Also, I loved the rock the boat moment and would like to humbly submit that Americans ( or at least white Americans who are polish and my family) have Shout as our group wedding dance. My Indian immigrant college roomie was so confused at my wedding when it started. “ wait, what are you all doing, why does everyone know to do this?” “ this is a custom of my people. Just follow along.”
The juxtaposition of these people being incredibly endearing and ridiculous in their day-to-day lives with the backdrop of an ever-present conflict simmering around them feels very relatable without hammering it over our head. This is exactly the comedy of our times.
Derry Girls is just so incredibly good-hearted. So few shows are.
After bingeing the second season I, hand to God, almost described someone attractive as "a ride" (pronounced ROID, naturally.) And mentally reminded myself I had to pick up "the wains" after work.
Thank you to the person who gave me the Learned League referral!!! I've done two days so far and I'm having a great time!!! I was in first place in my rundle after the first day and then promptly realized on day 2 I was just lucky with the questions.
Yesterday was tough! I ended up tying 3(2)-3(1). Unlucky assigning points on my part, but it's pretty much impossible to know how to wager when it's everyone's first time through.
Ahh congrats and I am happy for you! I am also basically piggybacking here to beg for a learned league referral for myself if anyone has one to spare, I have wanted this for years
The season just started so it won't be referral time for another couple of months. Not sure when it'll be again, but hopefully you can find one in an open thread then!
I love love love Derry Girls. Raging that they changed the song that Orla steps to in the talent show in the S1 finale from Like A Prayer to a Take That song on Netflix, though!! (I'm in Ireland though so I can just watch it on Channel 4's streaming app/site and see the original though, so it's grand for me, lol.)
Does anyone have any recommended readings on The Troubles? I loved the show, but I have very little historical context for that time and would like to know more.
I'll let someone else recommend historical context but for literary social context, I've been recommending The Milkman by Anna Burns and Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine. They both capture a bit of the heart of the place along with the dark bits. The Milkman does the best job I've found of describing the weird closeness of the communities and how they police themselves in terms of acceptable behavior and how stifling that can be. Sweet Home is lighter and more contemporary and gets the wit and class divides right.
Nicole! Am catching up on Nicole Byer’s “Why Won’t You Date Me” and I just got to the episode where Demi explains how your Crush Chaos Friday kicked off his relationship and I legit squealed like he had mentioned a personal friend of mine. You are truly one of the brightest spots in our universe.
I would love to read some think pieces about Derry Girls! It feels like it's been a great slow-burning show which has really spread by word of mouth, mostly among women.
My actual name is Clare, spelled with no 'i' which is so rare outside of Ireland, and it is doing me such good to hear you all saying how much you love me! Also Nicole, I was the person who asked for your dry shampoo recommendations and got the fancy Sashajuan one from Sephora and it's great. Thanks!
My mom has a theory that every group of girl friends has a corresponding personality to the Derry Girls, and when I asked who Michelle was among her her high school friends, she said "a girl named Laura, we don't talk to her anymore......she was trouble" and it's been cracking me up for days
My mum is from Sligo (any Sligo/west coast peeps out there?) and the wooden spoon thing in the first ep was how I knew Derry Girls was real. I had such a VISCERAL reaction to that from my childhood, I had to call my mother and tell her, but I was laughing too hard for the first like, full 2 minutes to tell her what I was laughing about. Also, Sister Michael is the GOAT.
I'm still SO MAD about the way no one at the school will accommodate James needing to use a washroom in the first episode of S1. It's played for laughs but ALSO he's right, access to a washroom is a human right! And everyone just laughs at him/yells at him for asking about it in increasing desperation!
“I hate the tongue people” when watching with my Catholic spiritual director mother led to her ranting for five minutes about the tongue people and how unsanitary it is. Bless this show.
As an aside, I'm in Vermont this weekend visiting my parents and the Fiancee and I are talking about moving up here in the next year. It's exciting but scary.
I went to college outside Brattleboro. One of my HS friends who I keep up with on insta also lives on a gorgeous property in Vermont. It does make me nostalgic. The food is so good. I think a great place to live if, you know, living out in the country is your thing!
Derry Girls has by far been my most successful "you need this in your life now" evangelism. I have seen the first series at least four times through as a result of sitting down with friends/family to watch with them.
(also between my first and second viewing I read "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe and got excellent historical context that made the show even better)
Can I say I got my period and I need tampons and pizza so bad and I've been fighting my parents about my cheap-ass wine (1.50 a bottle, I live in Spain) all week and don't wanna ask them? They'll give me the cash but they don't have the cash. (For tampons. Not for pizza.)
I have only watched 1 episode of Derry Girls so far, but Rock the Boat was 100% a feature of my late eighties teenage discos in Dublin. Can't wait to watch the rest
Oh, thank god, an expert! In all the videos I’ve been watching it doesn’t look like people always do it the same way, like the Electric Slide. Is there always a “caller” at the front telling everyone what to do?
Na, it’s dependent on the drunkenness level of the crowd. If it’s early in the night and there’s a few sober, enthusiastic people’s well dispersed aroma the dance floor it’ll be pretty good. Later on it’s just lying on the floor giggling mostly.
I love this show so much! Is anyone else of that age (teenager in the 90s) and get absolutely undone by it from that perspective? The music, the clothes, being in a gang of unruly girls? The soundtrack absolutely made the show for me.
If we're tagging ourselves, I am a Michelle that grew up to be a Sister Michael.
I lived in the UK from the late 80s to mid-90s. The TV news was basically nothing but the Troubles. Derry Girls is a little bit like time travel for me, yes.
I've watched it twice through now and told my bf last night we have to watch it together. He said "Sure, when you're ready for a rewatch we can start it together." As if I wasn't ready for another rewatch after immediately finishing the last episode?!?! Smh
I will be spending Quality Time with Derry Girls in the next little while. It's already influenced my word choice.
Are there any other lefties out there who'd like to be part of a friendly (so far) online reading group? We're starting with the first wee bit of the Communist Manifesto and are having our first chat Monday night. Dudes are involved but the mod/leader seems to be an actual Decent Soul. Contact me at testingwithfire at ProtonMail dot com if interested.
This will be a very busy weekend otherwise, too structured, again. I keep doing this to myself. There can be Too Many Fun Activities.
The "Across the Barricade" episode was pure poetry - I joined a similar program called "The Ulster Project" in highschool that brought 12 Northern Irish teens (both Catholic and Protestant) to the USA stay with host families and interact for the month of July. Pretty sure everyone's main goal was finding an international boyfriend or girlfriend.
I also participated in the Ulster Project back in the nineties. I love this show because I am about the same age as the characters. It brings back so many memories. We had a few romances blossom during the month, but nothing that lasted. The "Protestants hate ABBA" had me rolling because with my group ABBA was something that brought us all together.
My other favorite story about that month which would be hilarious with Michelle and Clare in mind. I lived in Eastern North Carolina back then and we have a Carolinas specific music and dance---beach music and shagging. One of the American girls on like the second day of the project was talking about what we could teach them during the month. The looks on the Irish girls faces when she uttered "and we can teach you how to shag" was priceless.
I am from California & somehow picked up shag in the Irish sense so when a very straightlaced girl in college started talking about learning to shag in Spring Break in high school "because they give lessons on the beach" I was extremely confused!
It just doesn’t make any sense why she wouldn’t want her bowl back
Ok hear me out, is it a passive-aggressive “keep it” because she already kept it so long?
I assumed the point was that we, nor anyone except michelle's mom, will ever know.
In my head, she got a better, bigger bowl so no longer needed it.
This must be it!
OMG. This bugged me for days.
SISTER MICHAEL IS EVERYTHING TO ME. Also Clare. Also the wee English fella.
The best thing about Sister Michael is that she despises everybody. In a lesser show, she would be taken in by Jenny's toadying. But in Derry Girls she is repulsed by all children equally. This is her glory.
"You will go far in life, Jenny, but you will not be well liked" is SUCH a good line.
This became an instant classic in our house.
I propose that the old "Which Sex and the City girl are you?" question be replaced by "Which Derry Girl?" I'm Clare. I'm not a wee lesbian but everything else is on the nose.
I'm an Erin with a Sister Michael rising
Hardcore Erin. Wished I was a Michelle.
Absolutely me as well
SAME
I'm Sister Michael
Or possibly the wee english fella
She is my QUEEN.
I mentioned to my best friend the other day that the most embarrassing part of watching Derry Girls is how much of an Erin I am
Recovering Jenny who went Michelle in her 20s to compensate.
I have a horrible feeling I'm jenny's friend on the piano
Aisling
Oh my god same
Welcome, friend! I'm so glad I didn't go to a school with a prefect system, because I would have been a NIGHTMARE.
Clare with strong Orla tendencies.
I feel like I'm Orla with strong Clare tendencies.
Same here!
Although I’m realizing at work I may in fact be a Gerry haha
My partner told me early on that I was Clare, and then it all just felt right when she came out as a wee lesbian.
Oh whoops, I didn't see this before I commented. A Michelle that grew up to be a Sister Michael.
I can't wait to find out what this all means!
I want to be a Clare, but I'm probably an Erin
Same!!
Same. Dogooder, anxious, bisexual but not Catholic
I see myself as Michelle, but I'm an extremely earnest woman, impulsive, and always shouting about something. But I'm clueless. So I'm pretty much Erin with a dash of Orla.
Just binged S1 and now I know who the wee lesbian is! I hope they do more with that in S2, which I haven't binged yet.
I'd take that quiz and I've not seen it yet.
I wish I were a wee lesbian
I just started Derry Girls after finishing Fleabag and I'm delighted by this hot priest marathon I'm inadvertently on!
the two best shows to ever exist, you are truly living your best life
I watched them simultaneously, and yes, hot priests FTW!
Go for Grantchester next, if you're not already a fan. #hotpriest
Oooh thank you
My favorite Derry Girls B plot was Mary and Sarah being total monsters to their father's very sweet and pious girlfriend.
My absolute favorite was Mary obsessing over 'the big bowl' that Michelle's mother lent her.
in some ways, it is the spiritual successor to the big clock from season 1
Every time Sister Michael is Deeply Skeptical of Everything is my favorite.
Her eye roll is itself a miracle in my life.
I am supposed to hear back about a “dream job” today and I’d love y’all thoughts and prayers. I’m very stressed out in the waiting!
Fingers crossed here!
I've never heard anyone sing so dreadfully so consistently the way Jenny does.
"You will go far in life, Jenny... But you will not be well liked."
Jenny is *such* a bad singer that every time I find myself wondering if the actress is really that bad or putting it on
LOVED that line, we all know a Jenny
"I knew it. When I woke up this morning I had a feeling something terrible was going to happen, and also that essentially, deep down, I'm quite an evil person." "It's a hangover, Clare. You'll be grand."
Am from Northern Ireland (don't live there any more tho), and the accuracy of DG is KILLING ME. Watching an episode is like sitting in a room with my family.
My mother's Catholic, and my dad was Protestant, so we keep our toaster in the cupboard but with the door left open.
Me too! not the toaster, but the rest.
ME TOO. US-based these days and I have had so many great conversations about home since America discovered Derry Girls. Feeling a bit homesick tbh. I am also the same age as these girls basically so the show gave me big music nostalgia too.
Awk, how 'bout ye?
Kinda proud. My very American kid told me not to get my knickers in a twist this morning.
also HMU for all your Norn Irish slang translation needs
Nerdery time: I think that everyone who runs D&D should watch Derry Girls for two reasons. 1. The constant escalation of nonsense is basically my platonic ideal of how a session should go. 2. One of the best examples I've ever seen of how different alignments can interact within a party, causing interesting disagreements and situations (specifically Michelle's chaotic neutral to Clare's lawful good)
As the Michelle in a party of Clares, can confirm
Someone has to do it!
if I don’t steal ye olde chippie job board who will
I have never played a D&D in my life but I have decided that this is true
Ooooh, what are the other alignments? I agree with Michelle's and Clare's for sure--I see Erin as lawful neutral, Orla also as chaotic neutral, and the wee English lad as lawful good. But I'm the fence on a couple of those takes.
Those sound right to me! The real question is Sister Michael... I'm tempted to say true neutral? She has to go through the motions of lawful good but also subverts them
She's almost certainly true neutral; it's so hard to pull off and she does it with such aplomb.
Guess I should start it this weekend. Could use a distraction. I went to the doctor this week and hey, I'm depressed! Which I already knew, but at least the mental health referral process is rolling now.
I know it's really frustrating, all the hoops. Good for you for handling the process. 💪💜
Thanks. Also waiting to hear about possible next steps from a recruiter who seemed to like me, but the more time passes, the more I'm convinced that it's nothing and I'm going to be let down again.
Sending you positive vibes that you'll land where you'll be happy.
Wheee, forward movement!
My most important Derry Girls take is that it is DEEPLY unrealistic that Clare, my dearest wee lesbian, did not IMMEDIATELY have a crush on the hot English teacher from series two!!! She wore suits!!! she stood Like That™!!!! No lesbian would stand a chance!!!!!
BUT ALSO the show is DELIGHTFUL AND THE BEST and is a perfect representation of smart teenager dumbassery
I understand that this is a Derry Girls thread, but I have some Mindhunter related content to share??
In which Holt McCallany repeatedly gives interviews in French, and Jonathan Groff is HOT.FOR.IT: https://twitter.com/mindcunter/status/1166793589692780546
The funeral episode of Derry Girls made me laugh harder than anything I have ever seen on tv
same. "Unfortunately i left the house without my plunger" "me too, nightmare"
Also, I loved the rock the boat moment and would like to humbly submit that Americans ( or at least white Americans who are polish and my family) have Shout as our group wedding dance. My Indian immigrant college roomie was so confused at my wedding when it started. “ wait, what are you all doing, why does everyone know to do this?” “ this is a custom of my people. Just follow along.”
My family too! Generationally agnostic group dance.
The juxtaposition of these people being incredibly endearing and ridiculous in their day-to-day lives with the backdrop of an ever-present conflict simmering around them feels very relatable without hammering it over our head. This is exactly the comedy of our times.
Derry Girls is just so incredibly good-hearted. So few shows are.
After bingeing the second season I, hand to God, almost described someone attractive as "a ride" (pronounced ROID, naturally.) And mentally reminded myself I had to pick up "the wains" after work.
It is? It seemed a bit... okay, how would you contrast it to Skins? Because I hated Skins.
I've never seen Skins, but I absolutely agree with the good-hearted assessment.
But I adore Wild Child and St Trinian's.
Thank you to the person who gave me the Learned League referral!!! I've done two days so far and I'm having a great time!!! I was in first place in my rundle after the first day and then promptly realized on day 2 I was just lucky with the questions.
Welcome to the club! I started this season fof with a 3(1)-2(3) victory which i was very proud of, narrowly lost yesterday
Yesterday was tough! I ended up tying 3(2)-3(1). Unlucky assigning points on my part, but it's pretty much impossible to know how to wager when it's everyone's first time through.
Yeah it's a total crapshoot in R Rundle.
Ahh congrats and I am happy for you! I am also basically piggybacking here to beg for a learned league referral for myself if anyone has one to spare, I have wanted this for years
Come find me in a month or so! I always have extra referrals.
The season just started so it won't be referral time for another couple of months. Not sure when it'll be again, but hopefully you can find one in an open thread then!
I will keep an eye out, thank you!
1. Clare is my favorite Derry Girl, all other opinions are wrong
2. I cannot WAIT for Nicola Coughlan as Penelope in the Bridgertons, she is my FAVORITE character
3. Can we discuss the movie adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along being filmed over TWENTY YEARS?!!???
Wait, what?!!!! This is AMAZING news!
She's going to be so perfect!
I *gasped* when I realized Nicola was going to be Penelope. Absolute perfection.
What is wrong with the big bowl??
I'm probably the only American who, when Cousin Eamon appeared, shouted "DOUGAL!"
I love love love Derry Girls. Raging that they changed the song that Orla steps to in the talent show in the S1 finale from Like A Prayer to a Take That song on Netflix, though!! (I'm in Ireland though so I can just watch it on Channel 4's streaming app/site and see the original though, so it's grand for me, lol.)
I'll be checking my VPN for Irish IP options when I get home
Does anyone have any recommended readings on The Troubles? I loved the show, but I have very little historical context for that time and would like to know more.
SAY NOTHING by Patrick Radden Keefe!
Seconded. Really great.
This book was incredible and every time I run across a book recommendation thread ANYWHERE, I post it.
I'll let someone else recommend historical context but for literary social context, I've been recommending The Milkman by Anna Burns and Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine. They both capture a bit of the heart of the place along with the dark bits. The Milkman does the best job I've found of describing the weird closeness of the communities and how they police themselves in terms of acceptable behavior and how stifling that can be. Sweet Home is lighter and more contemporary and gets the wit and class divides right.
There’s also a great doc about the broadcast ban (BBC being forced to dub Sinn Fein - such a bizarre situation. https://youtu.be/-yqXeIYmtsc
"Making Sense of The Troubles", by David McVea and David McKittrick, is thorough and even-handed.
I would add this one, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91947.Belfast_Diary
Nicole! Am catching up on Nicole Byer’s “Why Won’t You Date Me” and I just got to the episode where Demi explains how your Crush Chaos Friday kicked off his relationship and I legit squealed like he had mentioned a personal friend of mine. You are truly one of the brightest spots in our universe.
Oh shit! I just became obsessed with Pump Up The Jams so now I have to go listen to this episode. The internet is recursive!
Are you sure five bags of chips is enough?
I can't get over the expressiveness of Erin's face!
This is one of my favorite things about the show. Especially where David Donnelly is concerned.
I would love to read some think pieces about Derry Girls! It feels like it's been a great slow-burning show which has really spread by word of mouth, mostly among women.
Hear that word of mouth stuff. I binge watched it one weekend then got my parents and best friend to watch it.
Iva Dixit had a small piece in the New Yorker about Derry Girls - good start there.
it's online
Oh yes, and there are a couple of pieces on the Guardian (here https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/05/derry-girls-series-two-review-still-magic-still-a-total-ride and here https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/feb/25/a-bunch-of-eejits-taking-on-the-world-the-gloriously-gobby-derry-girls-are-back) but I'd really like to read something more in-depth! Here's hoping a commissioning editor is hanging out in these comments...
Does Derry Girls make anyone else openly weep unexpectedly?
Yes! I mean, "Dreams" by the Cranberries always helps.
For sure! Both finales made me cry, especially season 2.
Also who among us cannot say we have an Uncle Colm somewhere in the family? Even if he's an aunt?
I do have an uncle Colm (Uncle Daniel) actually, and had a Michelle (Ashleigh). She even had the same hairdo. It's so freaky.
My actual name is Clare, spelled with no 'i' which is so rare outside of Ireland, and it is doing me such good to hear you all saying how much you love me! Also Nicole, I was the person who asked for your dry shampoo recommendations and got the fancy Sashajuan one from Sephora and it's great. Thanks!
My mom has a theory that every group of girl friends has a corresponding personality to the Derry Girls, and when I asked who Michelle was among her her high school friends, she said "a girl named Laura, we don't talk to her anymore......she was trouble" and it's been cracking me up for days
Me: Do I look ok?
My husband: You look like the sister in Derry Girls.
Me: Orla?
Him: No, the sister.
Me: Sarah?!
Him: Yeah, Sarah at a funeral.
Apparently, my dress was too short for work ... 😂
I'm sure your clavicle was looking lovely! LOL
My mum is from Sligo (any Sligo/west coast peeps out there?) and the wooden spoon thing in the first ep was how I knew Derry Girls was real. I had such a VISCERAL reaction to that from my childhood, I had to call my mother and tell her, but I was laughing too hard for the first like, full 2 minutes to tell her what I was laughing about. Also, Sister Michael is the GOAT.
I'm still SO MAD about the way no one at the school will accommodate James needing to use a washroom in the first episode of S1. It's played for laughs but ALSO he's right, access to a washroom is a human right! And everyone just laughs at him/yells at him for asking about it in increasing desperation!
well, what do you expect, he's english
Yes but the nuns weren't going to care.
“I hate the tongue people” when watching with my Catholic spiritual director mother led to her ranting for five minutes about the tongue people and how unsanitary it is. Bless this show.
I will only be addressed as a 'wee lesbian' from now on.
As an aside, I'm in Vermont this weekend visiting my parents and the Fiancee and I are talking about moving up here in the next year. It's exciting but scary.
Oh, whereabouts? My mom lives in Rutland (don't move there) and I'm there frequently!
I went to college outside Brattleboro. One of my HS friends who I keep up with on insta also lives on a gorgeous property in Vermont. It does make me nostalgic. The food is so good. I think a great place to live if, you know, living out in the country is your thing!
I hear it's beautiful. I hope it's a good move for you.
It's GORGEOUS, absolutely one of my favorite NE states.
My love for Clare is so pure.
I have nothing intellectual to contribute but I just adore Derry Girls. The writing is so good and the acting is excellent.
Derry Girls has by far been my most successful "you need this in your life now" evangelism. I have seen the first series at least four times through as a result of sitting down with friends/family to watch with them.
(also between my first and second viewing I read "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe and got excellent historical context that made the show even better)
Can I say I got my period and I need tampons and pizza so bad and I've been fighting my parents about my cheap-ass wine (1.50 a bottle, I live in Spain) all week and don't wanna ask them? They'll give me the cash but they don't have the cash. (For tampons. Not for pizza.)
Do you need a venmo?!
I don't live in the US but I have a paypal? paypal.me/lixh (sorry Nicole if this isn't okay! Just delete it.)
Send you $5. Hopefully others can match. Tampons are a human right.
Thank you so much. <3
I have only watched 1 episode of Derry Girls so far, but Rock the Boat was 100% a feature of my late eighties teenage discos in Dublin. Can't wait to watch the rest
Oh, thank god, an expert! In all the videos I’ve been watching it doesn’t look like people always do it the same way, like the Electric Slide. Is there always a “caller” at the front telling everyone what to do?
Na, it’s dependent on the drunkenness level of the crowd. If it’s early in the night and there’s a few sober, enthusiastic people’s well dispersed aroma the dance floor it’ll be pretty good. Later on it’s just lying on the floor giggling mostly.
Amazing. Thank you!
as well as every wedding i ever attended in the west of ireland!
I love this show so much! Is anyone else of that age (teenager in the 90s) and get absolutely undone by it from that perspective? The music, the clothes, being in a gang of unruly girls? The soundtrack absolutely made the show for me.
If we're tagging ourselves, I am a Michelle that grew up to be a Sister Michael.
I lived in the UK from the late 80s to mid-90s. The TV news was basically nothing but the Troubles. Derry Girls is a little bit like time travel for me, yes.
I've watched it twice through now and told my bf last night we have to watch it together. He said "Sure, when you're ready for a rewatch we can start it together." As if I wasn't ready for another rewatch after immediately finishing the last episode?!?! Smh
I will be spending Quality Time with Derry Girls in the next little while. It's already influenced my word choice.
Are there any other lefties out there who'd like to be part of a friendly (so far) online reading group? We're starting with the first wee bit of the Communist Manifesto and are having our first chat Monday night. Dudes are involved but the mod/leader seems to be an actual Decent Soul. Contact me at testingwithfire at ProtonMail dot com if interested.
This will be a very busy weekend otherwise, too structured, again. I keep doing this to myself. There can be Too Many Fun Activities.
I love Derry girls with my whole heart.
Does anyone see a strong and welcome resemblance btwn Sister Michael and Merriweather from Sleeping Beauty?
She also makes me think of Dorota in Gossip Girl (looks-wise. Clearly not personality-wise).
Are you now best buds with only Nicola Coughlan (which is awesome) or with the rest of the cast and crew as well?
The "Across the Barricade" episode was pure poetry - I joined a similar program called "The Ulster Project" in highschool that brought 12 Northern Irish teens (both Catholic and Protestant) to the USA stay with host families and interact for the month of July. Pretty sure everyone's main goal was finding an international boyfriend or girlfriend.
I also participated in the Ulster Project back in the nineties. I love this show because I am about the same age as the characters. It brings back so many memories. We had a few romances blossom during the month, but nothing that lasted. The "Protestants hate ABBA" had me rolling because with my group ABBA was something that brought us all together.
Yes!!!! I had a feeling there would be more Ulster Project people out there! It wasn't ABBA for us, it was S Club 7 and Robbie Williams.
My other favorite story about that month which would be hilarious with Michelle and Clare in mind. I lived in Eastern North Carolina back then and we have a Carolinas specific music and dance---beach music and shagging. One of the American girls on like the second day of the project was talking about what we could teach them during the month. The looks on the Irish girls faces when she uttered "and we can teach you how to shag" was priceless.
I am from California & somehow picked up shag in the Irish sense so when a very straightlaced girl in college started talking about learning to shag in Spring Break in high school "because they give lessons on the beach" I was extremely confused!
The frantic prayer to St Anthony in the car is the most relatable depiction of a Catholic on TV I have ever watched in my life.